Career Interview with Dan Konigsberg, Founder & CEO of Campminder

BACKGROUND

Where did you grow up, and where do you currently live?

I grew up in Manhattan, on the Upper East Side. I moved to Boulder, CO in 2008, and now live here with my wife and 9-year-old twins.

Where did you go to college?

I went to Emory University in Atlanta, after having really enjoyed the city on the Okee big trip to the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Were there any courses you took that you found to be particularly helpful in your current position?

I majored in economics and minored in computer science, both of which have a lot to do with the path I ended up taking. The computer science side is obvious, but learning economics started me thinking about waste and efficiency; providing some baseline understanding about supply and demand and other fundamental business concepts.

CURRENT JOB

Would you walk us through your career path?

The path was very short! In the mid-90s, while in high school, I had created a website called “The Dave Matthews Band Tour Archive," that tracked all of the band’s shows, the corresponding setlists, song play statistics, and attendee reviews of each show. Originally, I maintained the site manually, updating dozens of webpages every day. During their summer tours, I’d have to sneak into either the back of the camp office or the Tak Talk office to find opportunities to keep the site up to date for its many users. The site went on to amass more than two million visits per month and win two VH-1 MyMusic Awards for “Coolest Fan Website.” Unfortunately, though, as time went on, manually updating the site after each gig (read: most days of the year) was no longer what I considered "fun" as a college student.

My last summer working at Takajo was in 2000, and the following summer I decided to get an internship to learn how to do web-based, database development, with the goal of learning how to automate my DMB website. But each day I found myself going to the Takajo website, pining for the Maine pines and wishing I were there. While looking at pictures of camp, I stumbled upon the online staff application. Now, this was a step up from how I’d applied to work at camp on a paper form, but I instinctively knew that Bob Lewis was getting emails with a dump of all the applicant data, and I wondered to myself, “What does he do with all of this information? Where does he take notes on his conversations with people? How does he keep Jeff and Warren in the loop since they all live in different places in the off-season? What do they do once they hire somebody?”

So, I started building a system to streamline all of this information. After camp, I showed it to Bob, who loved it, and from whom I spent much of my senior year at Emory learning about the staff hiring process. I started learning from Jeff and Warren as well, about how they run camper management, and before I knew it, I had developed a product unlike anything that existed for the camp industry!

At that time, I was super naive, and I had no clue what it would take to turn CampMinder into a real company. Over the past 21 years, however, that is what has happened. CampMinder currently works with almost 1,000 of the best summer camps in the world (when I started this endeavor, I didn’t even know there were that many), and we employ about 80 full-time people throughout the US.

I imagine there is no “typical week,” but would you give us a glimpse into some of the types of the things that might take place over the course of your work week?

It’s certainly true that there is no typical week for me, but that works well for my very active mind, as variety is the spice of life. My job title is “CEO”, but I would consider my role to be that of the “Integrator.” My responsibility is to execute our business plan by harmoniously integrating all the different functions of the business, using a skill that camp helped me to develop: empathy. Just like I learned from Jeff, I’ve surround myself with great people, and work to find people who are better at leading each area of the business than I would be. Each week, I meet with my executive team for 90 minutes; I spend time in 1-on-1 meetings with each of my senior leaders to understand and gain insights into their experiences and how I can help them; and I join meetings within various departments to add my insights and to help develop great solutions to the challenges within our product. Overall, my role is to ensure that the company’s processes, people, and structure are working smoothly and are sufficient to allow us to achieve our customers' goals. When the meatiest challenges arise, they land on my desk, and I collaborate with other executives in the company to solve them. There’s never been a dull moment so far!

Are there any expectations you had about building a company that you have found differed from your expectation, in either a good or bad way?

I was too young and naive to have any expectations when I got started, but I will say this:

One of our job candidates once asked me a thought-provoking question: "Over your 21 years as a founder and CEO, what has been your biggest learning experience?"

I thought about it for a minute.

Here’s what came up: As a founder, my job was about being part of every conversation and making a lot of things happen - "taking care of business," so to speak.

Today, I’m a CEO. I actually “do” very little. I don’t “do” projects anymore. My job is to be the container of the energy of all of it. I talk to people. I gain insights. I “feel into” the organization. I sense what’s working and not working. I share thoughts and ideas. I help. I coach. I ponder. I connect.

So, my biggest learning has been how to transition from one thing into something entirely different. The needs of a startup are entirely different from the needs of a more mature company.

The challenge of a founder who wishes to stick around for the long haul is to be open to the idea that they probably don’t know a thing about what their job will ultimately become, so they’ll need to be comfortable being uncomfortable. They need to be willing to continuously step into the unknown, learn and grow, and roll with it.

GENERAL CAREER QUESTIONS

Who inspires you in terms of your career?

I promise I’m not blowing smoke here, but my cousin, the one and only Jeff Konigsberg, comes to mind. He took over Takajo as a twenty-something and quickly made moves that set Takajo apart in the camp industry. He’s never been afraid to invest and reinvest in the camp - always in service of improving the experience of both staff and campers. He cares about all of the people - the campers, parents, and seasonal and full-time employees. He leads by example and with his heart. I find all of these things more inspiring than somebody who just built a gigantic business and made a lot of money. But I’ve learned that by leading in this way, you can build a business that is stronger and more resilient than most; one that attracts long-term loyalty and love from both customers and employees.

What are your hobbies?

When I’m not working at CampMinder or parenting my twins, you can find me with a guitar in hand jamming out and singing any of the hundreds of songs I’ve written over the years. I love hanging out with friends, and I’ve found that it can be especially fun to do that on the ski slopes, which is something I didn’t do growing up. I also enjoy reading - mostly books about leadership and mindfulness these days.

Did you have a career setback you faced that you later realized was an advantage?

I’ve been very fortunate with CampMinder over the years, as our trajectory has been up-and-to-the-right from the beginning. However, there was one event that put a damper on things, and you might remember it - the COVID-19 pandemic! 2020 was not a great year to have a camp or a business that served camps. Our revenue went down 30%. Ultimately, though, it led me to reconsider my life experience and caused me to want to find new business partners. Since then, in just over two years, we’ve taken CampMinder to a completely new level and have found a trajectory that will allow us to continue to do incredible things for the camp industry in the years to come.

Are there any books, blogs, etc., that you would recommend to someone who is interested in building their own company?

While there are MANY more than these, off the top of my head, the below are some of my favorites:

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I remember reading this early on, and there’s something about it that helped me to think about spreading the word about CampMinder as “going viral” before that term was in our shared lexicon.

Good to Great (and Built to Last) by Jim Collins. Good to Great is a super interesting business classic about what certain companies that blew past the market do that the others do not. And in Built to Last, Collins lays out foundational principles that allow companies to withstand the test of time.

15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, et al. I can’t adequately summarize the immense amounts of wisdom in here. But it’s a special book. In particular, I use “The Drama Triangle” model in here all the time when I coach people.

Leadership and Self Deception by The Arbinger Institute. This book explains that one of the biggest mistakes leaders make is to blame other people for their failures. This is a complete paradigm shift, and it’s important.

Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD. This one’s incredibly valuable for business, but it is something to live all of life by.

The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer. I saved the best for last. This is my overall #1 favorite book, and it goes very, very deep. But this is a book about life and how to live it with a perspective that, sadly, most people do not.

What hard skills are most useful to someone in your field?

For me as a tech entrepreneur, it’s incredibly valuable to have a deep foundational understanding of software development. That said, I don’t think it’s necessary for someone in my role, as long as you’re partnered up with someone who is. Truthfully, I don’t think being a CEO requires a lot of what we would traditionally call “hard skills.” If anything, I would say the capacity to grasp all kinds of concepts and then be able to integrate them together in your brain is really important. As CEOs, we need to be able to see and understand the complex relationships between things, be critical thinkers, and in many ways think like an architect: what structure and process do I need to put in place to make this work?

What soft skills are most useful to someone in your field?

All of them. Soft skills are the most important skills for a CEO and leader. These have to do with communication, empathy, human understanding, the art of persuasion, and the ability to remain emotionally grounded and level-headed. These skills are SO important that I think camp people are uniquely advantaged to be amazing CEOs. So, if you’re reading this and are aspiring to be a CEO, this is good news! For what it’s worth, I’ll always be here to help Takajo alumni learn the ropes of entrepreneurship.

Do you have advice for how best to find a mentor?

There are two things that come to mind:

(1) I joined EO (Entrepreneurs’ Organization) a while back and it allowed me to connect with other people who chose this life path. It helped me to understand that I’m not alone (it can be lonely at the top), and it created a network for me where I could meet other entrepreneurs for lunch or whenever to simply learn from them.

(2) Working with an Executive Leadership Coach was maybe the single most valuable thing I’ve done as a CEO and entrepreneur. A good coach won’t spend much time teaching you about tactics of running a business, but rather will help you to get much more intimately close with yourself, as YOU are the one running the business. What holds you back? How do you experience fear? Why do you behave the way you do? Then, once you gain a stronger sense of self (ironically by becoming more egoless), you can bring a version of yourself into your businesses to lead from a principled and grounded place.

TAKAJO HISTORY

What years were you at camp?

I had to look at CampMinder to remember! I was a camper from 1989 - 1996, and a Crows general counselor, and flag football counselor, from 1997-2000.

Last summer was your children's 1st summer at Takajo and Tripp Lake; what do you hope for their camp experiences?

I got to take them to visit Takajo and Tripp three summers ago, and it was a magical experience. It hit me from so many different angles - both as a former camper/staffer, founder of CampMinder, and a dad. To see my kids run around the same fields and buildings that I did as a kid took me full circle. Then to think that everyone there has some connection to CampMinder at this point was also mind boggling for me. It was incredibly moving, and words can’t do it justice. I’ll also share that it was terrifying trying to dock the pontoon boat for the first time as an inexperienced boater. Thankfully Bob sent in all the troops the first time to help pull us in!

How did your camp experience impact your career?

My camp experience impacts my career in so many ways! Obviously, my company’s purpose is fully centered around summer camp and helping to make running a camp easier for administrators and keeping in touch and communicating with camp easier for parents and staff. But more important than the “what we do” is the "how we do it." My leadership style is grounded in my core values, which are derivatives of Takajo’s Arch Ideals. We run a people-first company and that fundamental principle - of not just putting people before profits, but actually understanding that creating a fun and supportive work environment is foundational to having a business that CAN generate profits - is central to literally everything I do as a CEO.

At Takajo what was your:

Favorite activity: Basketball

Favorite memory:? It’s hard to boil it down to just one, but the big trip to the Olympics that I mentioned before was really special and hard to beat. Just to be with all the guys who were at camp until the very end and to have some of my favorite Takajo counselors and staff, including The Bopper Himself (capital H intentional), along for the ride was just one for the ages.